dads/moms with "professional careers": do you eat dinner with family on weekdays?

[Anonymous]

dad here, lawyer at midsize firm. zero chance I am home in Vienna before 7:30pm. and a few times a month, or more, I have board meetings, business development, etc. When I was in biglaw it would have been impossible to get home before 9pm.

So let me know, and if the answer is what I expect, how do you explain to your family?

[Anonymous]

I'm a physician. I make it home to 6pm dinner about 4 nights per week. The other night, they eat with grandparents. DH makes it home by 6 once in a blue moon (lawyer).

No explanation needed yet and hopefully, as they get a bit older, we can push dinner time back to daddy-get-home time.

[Anonymous]

I switched to government and I am home every night. Less money, but no explanations necessary.

[Anonymous]

I am dw with a dh who is only home twice a week for dinner time. He normally gets home around 8 pm and with little children, I can't even keep them awake that long much less eat their dinner with him. I don't look for reasons and neither do they. It is our normal. It is fantastic when he is home but it isn't expected. That said, on weekends, I expect a whole lot of 'daddy' to be in play.

[Anonymous]

I'm the mom and am home with the kids NLT 5 pm sometimes earlier. My husband is home later, but normally by 6 at the very latest. Yes we all eat dinner together every night. I suspect that will.change as the kids get into sports.

You probably make way more money than us with those hours. We make around 150-175 each

[Anonymous]

I have my own part-time business and am always home at dinner except for when it's out with my DH for something or for book club, etc.

DH is also always usually home. He's an exec at a big firm. He just prioritizes.

After the kids go to bed, he usually has more work to do but it's always from home.

Kids are 6 and 7 and we eat together as a family usually about 5-6 nights every week.

Our HHI is over 400K and I make a paltry amount to add to that when all is considered.

[Anonymous]

salary is somewhat not relevant given the job market. I don't want to lose what I have, so if I have to work late, so be it. plus there is the commute.

[Anonymous]

I got out of law when my kids were young in order to be home more. Now I'm in another field where I generally get home by 6pm. Kids are also older now, which makes it easier.

FWIW, I used to dread afternoon conversations with DH (also al lawyer) over who had to work later and who would get home first to relieve the nanny. It was horrible!

[Anonymous]

We pushed dinner as late as possible - 7:30 usually - to be able to eat together. Now that the kids are older we have much more flexible schedules but there are sports or tutoring or something many evenings so we eat together more sporadically.

[Anonymous]

Our baby is newly 1 yr old, so she works around us. We eat dinner when everybody finally gets home.

[Anonymous]

i am an attorney, we eat together as a family every night...but i work for feds

[Anonymous]

Dh and I both are "professionals". He works late about once a week, and I work late about once a month. The rest of the time we are both home between 5:30 and 6

[Anonymous]

Yes, govt lawyer, home at 5:15 except for maybe 3 times a year.

[Anonymous]

PP here. I should add that DH has missed only 1 dinner/bedtime in 2.5 years, back when DD fell asleep before 6.

[Anonymous]

DD is little, and still going to bed at 6:30 pm. So no, DH and I eat later at night after she's asleep (one if us is always home for her dinner and bedtime routine. But hopefully, she'll start going to bed later as an older kid and i hope that we can do a 7/7:30 dinnertime as a family pretty consistently.